Rounded shoulders. Forward neck position. Don’t look like the penguin in the picture. What happens when this posture is kept for hours? Muscles around the neck and shoulder area gets tight. So how do you fix it?
First, do the opposite. If you round your shoulders, incorporate stretches that allow your arms to go backwards. Like the photo below, when your arms are behind, your chest and lats (armpit) elongate. Your body will appreciate this stretch. This can be done seated as well.
Secondly, make sure your scapulae (shoulder blades) are moving. The scapula has many functions in the arm: elevation, depression, retraction, and protraction. What does this mean? If the shoulder blades don’t move as well, your mid back gets tight. A stretch you can do to take care of the retraction and protraction (where your blades go in and out) is the cat/camel stretch. Here is the video for the tutorial.
Ultimately, bad posture is due to years of years of bad habit. I blame it on those horrible backpacks we used to wear going to school. Boy did I look like a turtle carrying 5-6 books in my JanSport. Those that have a desk job, my recommendation is to get up once every hour and move your arms. Roll your shoulders backwards. But you gotta do this as often as you can. Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more next Wed………………..Kei